AWARDS FOR EXCELLENCE IN PUBLIC RELATIONS 2018 - 25TH - PRCA (Ireland)
←
→
Page content transcription
If your browser does not render page correctly, please read the page content below
25ANNIVERSARY
TH
AWARDS FOR
EXCELLENCE IN
PUBLIC
RELATIONS
2018
PUBLIC
RELATIONS
INSTITUTE
OF IRELANDBest Consumer Public Relations Campaign
Best
Best Public €50k
Campaign Sector Campaign
Or Under
Campaign
Official Launch of Waterford Greenway
Description of Campaign
The official launch and promotion of Waterford Greenway to a
domestic audience was driven by a high impact and innovative
PR campaign. Working with a tight budget, Springboard secured
not only national, but international coverage, positioning the
amenity as a top Irish tourism destination and attracting visitors
Rhona Blake, FPRII, Chairman of the PRCA; Susie Horgan, MPRII, to the region.
Springboard PR & Marketing Managing Director & Strategic Lead
and Maria Tracey, Springboard PR & Marketing Client Manager.
Public Relations Consultant
Springboard PR & Marketing
Client
Waterford City & County Council
Background to the Campaign
Waterford Greenway, the longest off-road walking and cycling experience in Ireland, was developed by Waterford City
& County Council. The project stretches 46km from Waterford City to Dungarvan, along the former Great Southern and
Western Railway line.
The full length of the Greenway was due to be officially opened to the public in September 2016. Springboard was
engaged as the PR agency by Waterford City & County Council to plan and manage a public relations campaign to
officially launch the Waterford Greenway and promote it to a local, regional and national audience. This was the first
time that the amenity was to be actively promoted and positioned as a tourism attraction.
In the lead up to the launch, there were a number of challenges to overcome.
1Challenges
• Due to unexpected delays, the Greenway did not open in September 2016, as expected.
> This meant that the launch (and the campaign, as a whole) was pushed out by several months, to 25 March 2017.
• Waterford Greenway was known in the region, and referenced by media, as ‘Deise Greenway’. The Council
had chosen to brand the Greenway as ‘Waterford Greenway’ to make it more marketable internationally as a
tourism attraction.
> The lack of awareness and potential for confusion in the lead up to the launch was a huge issue.
• The official page, Visitwaterfordgreenway.com was not appearing in Google searches.
> Search traffic was directed to non-official pages referencing Deise Greenway.
Best Consumer Public Relations Campaign
> Visitwaterfordgreenway.com existed as a microsite within the Visitwaterford.com site. It is very difficult to
secure organic ranking for microsites.
Best Campaign €50k Or Under
> This meant that official, digital collateral and service information for visitors (maps, facilities information, etc.),
provided by the Council to promote the Greenway, were not being found online by users.
• Differentiating the Waterford Greenway project from other Irish tourism attractions.
Statement of Objectives
At the outset of the campaign, Springboard defined a set of specific, measurable, attainable, relevant and time-
based (SMART) objectives, according to the Barcelona Principles, that were to be met by the end of our period of
engagement. These were:
• Deliver a planned and managed PR campaign for the official launch of the Greenway.
> Achieve local, regional and national coverage in relevant media.
> Ensure that media (and locals) used the official title and brand during the launch – Waterford Greenway,
not the colloquial term ‘Deise Greenway’.
> Differentiate Waterford Greenway from other Irish tourism attractions and position it as one of the leading
tourism initiatives in Ireland.
• Unify and engage local and national stakeholders, and media, throughout the campaign.
> Target and engage brand ambassadors for the Greenway on a voluntary basis.
• Activate and mobilise an online audience with high levels of engagement.
> Create compelling content for social – including videos.
> Engage influencers in the opening of the Greenway.
> Secure a #1 ranking on Google search engine for Visitwaterfordgreenway.com.
> Effectively target key demographics:
– ABC1 individuals, aged 25 to 44.
– Families.
– Fitness community.
– Travel and tourism community.
• Achieve high footfall on the Greenway from the launch to the year end.
• Increase bed nights in and along the Greenway.
• Achieve high attendance level at the launch.
• Deliver the campaign on time and within budget.
• When the official launch was delayed, the entire project was pushed out. In addition to the above,
Springboard also had to:
> Manage expectations and reactions of the public to the altered timeline.
> Amend the strategy to sensitively communicate the new timeline for the launch.
Programme Planning and Strategy
Springboard devised a fully integrated campaign with a creative and powerful PR strategy for the launch and
promotion of the Greenway.
Pre-Launch
The Greenway launch was postponed until March 2017. In addition to the campaign plan below, Springboard delivered
additional services in September 2016, to rally support. This included:
2• A release for a soft launch in September.
> This communicated the positive message that the new launch date, 25 March 2017, would coincide with the
start of the tourism season.
In the lead up to the launch at the end of March 2017, Springboard addressed challenges to ensure the best possible
outcome for the event:
• Springboard used PR to promote the benefits the Greenway would have for the region by:
> Issuing a business release highlighting the potential for jobs and growth.
Best Consumer Public Relations Campaign
> Strategically sharing case studies of locals who set up successful enterprises or had business growth
thanks to the Greenway.
Best Campaign €50k Or Under
> Securing media interviews with local business owners on same to motivate local audiences.
• To ensure that the Waterford Greenway brand was widely utilised before the launch, Springboard:
> Developed a stakeholders communication strategy.
> Developed an internal communications strategy, outlining key messages for Waterford City & County
Council to enable Council members to promote the brand.
• Liaised directly with media on the brand.
> Identified and engaged volunteer brand ambassadors to support the brand and contribute to communications/
collateral including; television chef Paul Flynn, Irish rugby star Niamh Briggs, TV personality Carrie Crowley,
and the Waterford Senior Hurling team, and manager Derek McGrath.
• To ensure that Visitwaterfordgreenway.com had a dominant presence for the launch, Springboard organically
improved its SEO through PR and social media.
• Video content was developed in advance of the launch to further develop brand awareness.
The PR Plan for the Official Launch Day in March
Traditional PR
• The then Minister for Housing, Planning and Local Government, Simon Coveney TD was secured to attend
and provide comment in the press release on the economic benefits of the Greenway.
• Invitations were issued to relevant journalists to attend the launch.
• A photocall notice was issued and photographer secured to capture images for media.
• An issues management strategy outlined a plan for identifying, managing and minimising possible issues
around the launch.
• Press release and images were issued to national and regional media on the launch day.
Digital PR
To amplify traditional PR activity, Springboard implemented a digital strategy:
• Full management of the social media campaign for the Greenway launch which:
> Mobilised a national audience in advance, and on the day of the launch.
> Used compelling content and clear calls-to-action, driving users to Visitwaterfordgreenway.com,
increasing web traffic and improving SEO.
• Activation of brand ambassadors and influencers.
> Influencers included: Barra Best, Tweeting Goddess, Sport Ireland, Niamh Briggs, Tourism Ireland,
Thomas Barr, Aussie Gleeson, Moe Dunford, Jennifer O’Connell and several government bodies.
• Ensured the hashtag #WaterfordGreenway was trending on Twitter.
• The press release was shared with target online media.
Post-Launch
Capitalising on the successful launch, Springboard sustained the momentum with:
• Press familiarisation trips with influential journalists.
• Springboard engaged an Ireland’s Ancient East stakeholder – Cork Airport – to promote the Greenway in
their newsletter via a competition.
• A second video was pushed out, featuring the aforementioned brand ambassadors, just before the May
Bank Holiday Weekend. It reminded people to visit the Greenway that weekend and during the coming
summer months.
3Measurement
All SMART objectives were exceeded:
• Almost 10,000 launch attendees.
• Almost 250,000 Greenway visitors in 2017.
• Voluntary brand ambassadors secured.
All coverage was positive and in line with key messages:
• 70+ relevant media outlets.
Best Consumer Public Relations Campaign
• All coverage referenced ‘Waterford Greenway’.
• Online coverage generated 49,000 social media shares.
Best Campaign €50k Or Under
• Readership – 9 million.
• Listenership – 1 million.
• Viewership – 1 million (23% of people living outside Waterford heard about the Greenway on television).
• RTÉ Nationwide twice, Sunday AM, TV3 and RTÉ TV News.
• Springboard secured not just national, but international coverage, including: Lonelyplanet.com,
Travelandleisure.com, Theculturetrip.com, Radio Times, Independent UK and National Geographic UK
(their second most read article in 2017).
• National tier one coverage included: Sunday Times (front page), Irish Independent, TheJournal.ie
and The Irish Times.
• Radio included: Today FM, Newstalk, RTÉ Radio and all local radio stations.
• Mayor Adam Wyse was quoted in 29 online articles and RTÉ TV News.
Visitwaterfordgreenway.com achieved #1 ranking on Google in time
for the launch because:
• Digital PR earned 135 backlinks to Visitwaterfordgreenway.com (175% increase).
• Links to Visitwaterfordgreenway.com shared on social media received 1,370+ clickthroughs.
Videos reached:
• 580,000+ people.
• 1 million+ impressions on social.
Social media:
• #WaterfordGreenway trended for four days on Twitter in Ireland.
• 55% of people reached by social media content were the target age, 25-44.
• In one week, Springboard earned 3,000 Facebook followers – 20% increase.
• 32,000+ people engaged with Facebook at the launch.
• Instagram engagement was up to seven times higher than before Springboard’s engagement.
• 33,000 impressions – Twitter (day of launch).
• 1,276 ‘attending’ responses – Facebook event page.
• Influencers’ posts on social media reached c.1.27 million people.
• Bloggers included Waterfordwhispersnews.com, Alittlelondoner.com, Stickybottle.com, Lavenderandlace.ie,
Cyclingeurope.org, Holidayguru.ie.
A recent Waterford Greenway survey shows the success of Springboard’s
campaign:
• 34% of users live outside Waterford.
• 70% said it was main reason to visit Waterford.
• 40% stayed overnight.
• 44% of international visitors were from the UK.
• Almost 10% from Germany and France respectively.
This positioning was such a success, Greenway has won:
• Best Tourism Initiative & Grand Prix – All Ireland Community and Council Awards.
• Supporting Tourism – Chambers Ireland Excellence in Local Government Awards.
4You can also read
